Kuo_2015_Bioresour.Technol_192_54

The versatile Candida rugosa lipase (CRL) has been widely used in biotechnological applications. However, there have not been feasibility reports on the transesterification of non-edible oils to produce biodiesel using the commercial CRL preparations, mixtures of isozymes. In the present study, four liquid recombinant CRL isozymes (CRL1-CRL4) were investigated to convert various non-edible oils into biodiesel. The results showed that recombinant CRL2 and CRL4 exhibited superior catalytic efficiencies for producing fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) from Jatropha curcas seed oil. A maximum 95.3% FAME yield was achieved using CRL2 under the optimal conditions (50wt% water, an initial 1equivalent of methanol feeding, and an additional 0.5equivalents of methanol feeding at 24h for a total reaction time of 48h at 37 degrees C). We concluded that specific recombinant CRL isozymes could be excellent biocatalysts for the biodiesel production from low-cost crude Jatropha oil.